Onierophobics and Insomniacs
by AmberLiz
Summary: If two broken hearts can form a whole, it's possible that those who can't dream and those afraid to can confide in each other.
1. Chapter 1

**Authors Note: Okay, I am positive this will turn out better than my other multi-chapter. I was really excited to finish the outline, so I hope this works.**

**And by the way, I've discovered something interesting. If you read the Inception script, you'll notice Arthur's kiss trick is missing, and there seem to be a lot more DomxAri implications. I believe that Christopher might have been planning on Dom and Ariadne being a couple. Seriously, check that script out.**

**Disclaimer: **Inception belongs to Christopher Nolan. If I owned it, it would be disastrous.

* * *

"**Do you remember we were sitting there by****the water?****  
****You put your arm around me for the first time****  
****You made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter****  
****You are the best thing that's ever been mine**

**Do you remember all the city lights on ****the water?****  
****You saw me start to believe for the first time****  
****You made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter****  
****You are the best thing that's ever been mine****."**

**~ excerpt Taylor Swift's 'Mine' song ~

* * *

**

Dom could hardly believe how much his life had turned around. This man who he had been sent after by Cobol was now offering him a way home. _Home,_ he thought _to James and Phillipa... _It would all be worth it. He would meet Mal's mother with even eyes while she glared at him accusingly, he would leave his days of extraction behind him, he would make up for all the time he spent away with his kids and every damn mistake would be forgotten. _But,_ he thought _can I ever shake the truth?_

Mal could not be forgotten. She lingered in his mind stubbornly while he made no real effort to shake her off. Somehow it felt like she was killing him emotionally, always trying to fill his head with doubt and lies. He could never fall for anything she said because he knew the truth, because _he _had made the lie. And you can't believe a lie that you made up because you know just how false it is.

He'd been so _foolish _to think his plan would work. Mal was only supposed to accept that limbo was not reality, not think that wherever she was just a dream. After that terrible night when she'd fallen from the building all he could do was cling to the wall and curse himself for doing that to her. He had unintentionally lost the girl he'd met at college and fell head over heels for.

Unable to bring up the courage to think about the past anymore, Dom moved off of the white bed in his hotel room and crossed the sand-colored carpet to the door. He was positive he'd seen a bar across the street that he means by all intentions to drown his worries away in. It's something he'd decided to do every once in a while and had been pleasantly surprised to find he never got worse than tipsy with alcohol, preventing anything that would lead to a bedroom.

He casually tossed open the wooden door to step into the cold hallway and shut it behind him, making sure his room key was in his pocket.

"Hey!" The dark-haired point man's voice echoed in his ears as Dom passed his teammate's room

Frustrated, he ran one hand through his blonde hair, slightly ruffling it. "What, Arthur?"

"You know we have to look for new team members tomorrow, you said it yourself. If you go and get smashed I don't think you'll find any in the toilet." Arthur stated.

Dom's piercing blue eyes glared into Arthur's dark ones. "Do you think after all this time I get hangovers that bad?" he hoped that the look on his face got the true message across that he wanted Arthur to stay out of his business and quit patronizing him. As reliable as Arthur could be, he wasn't very understanding. Dom wondered if Arthur would back off if he made the same mistakes Dom had.

Arthur opened the door to his own room without taking his eyes off of Dom's, still trying to get his own disapproving point across. "I sincerely hope you stop this if you can get back to your kids." With that, Arthur stepped inside his room and shut the door.

Dom wouldn't let the point man's words get to him, once he knew he was going to do something he was bound and determined to complete his objective.

* * *

"Damn, Ariadne that's your third!" Ramone exclaimed from the other side of the red-leather booth as Ariadne slammed another empty glass on the dark table. "What's bothering you?"

Ariadne rubbed her pale forehead, slightly annoyed by trying to listen to the loud music and her classmate at the same time. "My sister is getting married." She grumbled, picturing the little brat in her mind now. Though a usually mature person, Ariadne could not stand Anthea. She was self-centered, rude, overly talkative and overall didn't have the sense God gave a pigeon.

Ramone raised his red-brown eyebrows understandingly. "Is she younger than you?"

Ariadne nodded. "Three years younger." Of course Ramone would agree that it was at least slightly damaging to someone's self esteem if their bitchy little sister got married before them.

Ramone leaned back in the booth before asking "How old is the guy?"

"My age." She hissed, staring longingly at her glass. She didn't add that the bastard was her high school ex that she had broken up with for cheating on her. _Maybe they deserve each other, _Ariadne thought bitterly. Imagining how crushed Anthea would be when the 'guy of her dreams' was caught with his tongue down another girl's throat.

Ramone stopped leaning back when he followed her gaze to the empty glass. "Ariadne, listen. There are girls like you everywhere, they have a couple of drinks, meet a stranger in a club and just like that they believe their problems will magically vanish. And then they get addicted to screwing the bastards they see until it leads them to a road no one deserves to go down. Don't be like them."

Ariadne narrowed her eyes at him. "If you're done playing the coach from _Mean Girls_, I think I like this song." She got up and strode to the color-lit dance floor, her short black dress clinging to her curves.

* * *

Dom had to blink a couple of times before his eyes adjusted to the strobe lights and his ears recovered from the initial shock of the loud music. Just as he moved around the slightly elevated dance floor he noticed a girl that captivated him the moment his gaze landed on her. Her dark brown hair bounced wildly as she danced in tune with the other people on the dance floor, and her black dress contrasted with her pale skin so fascinatingly. He couldn't help but let his jaw drop at the sight of her. After a moment he decided he was not leaving the club without that girl.

The girl had been in the middle of a clumsy spin when she lost her footing at the edge of the dance floor and would've crashed to the ground had Dom not caught her instinctively. He exhaled loudly as he absorbed the impact of her fall when he wrapped his arms around her. She opened her brown eyes, locking them onto his. After an awestruck moment he set her back on her feet, asking "Lost, beautiful?"

The girl blushed and averted her gaze shyly. "Thanks for not letting me crack my head." She squeaked.

Dom smiled charmingly, finding her shyness all too adorable. "My pleasure, I make it a habit to save innocent damsels."

Normally, Ariadne would have been pissed at the thought of being a damsel, but in her state she couldn't care less. Offering her hand, she introduced herself with a small smile "I'm Ariadne Kingson."

The man took her much-smaller hand in his. "Dominic Cobb." His eyes darted up and down her body once, almost too quickly to catch before he asked "You're a little young to be here, aren't you?"

Ariadne rolled her eyes. _Bring on the short jokes_. "I'm actually twenty-five I just come from a family of-"

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but can I talk to Ariadne for a moment?" The familiar voice made her grind her teeth in frustration. _Dammit, Ramone._ She watched Ramone hold Dominic's gaze with false politeness evident on his face. Dominic mirrored the expression with a light hint of annoyance.

"This won't take long." Ariadne said as she walked with Ramone over to a dark column.

Ramone's eyes blazed with disapproval as he glared down at her. "What is wrong with you? You don't want this, Ariadne!"

Ariadne took a step back, her hands balling into fists in her annoyance. "Who the hell are you to tell me what I want and don't want, Ramone? Leave me alone!" She had never been this mad at him, he was like her brother, but for as long as she'd known him he'd been even more nosey and cautious than she was. And to her, hanging around someone too much like one's self could get extremely annoying.

Ramone was hurt by her words, she could tell by the way his green eyes widened momentarily before trying to shake off his desperate look. "Ariadne, _please_ listen to me!" He begged her "You're drunk-"

"I sure am." Ariadne cut him off. "Now why don't you just go home. I'm done hanging out in a booth and chatting like it's the nineteenth century, it's time I had fun." She whirled around, not bothering to see her friend's expression as she went back to Dom.

Dom started to feel a tinge of regret when Ariadne walked back to him. The boy certainly wasn't her date or anything close to it, he was just trying to protect her. Ariadne hadn't seen the look of pain and terror on her friend's face. It almost shook in Dom's mind to the point of him questioning just what the hell he was doing. It wasn't like him to lust after a stranger, let alone one nine years younger than him. But the second those eyes reconnected with his he was vacuumed back into wanting her.

* * *

**(Quick A/N: *Pulls out bullhorn* For those of you who do not wish to read something RATED M, now is time to cut and run!)**

The hotel room felt humid to them as sweat clung to their bodies, their clothes abandoned on the carpeted floor as they moved to the bed. Dom's skin burned where she had touched him mere moments ago and he could bet hers did as well. He gently caressed the side of her face, kissing her deeply as his hand trailed down the side of her body. Winding his arm around her waist, he pulled her upwards, slightly arching her back.

Ariadne's pleasured moans filled the room as Dom placed passionate kisses along her neck, her eyes almost closing ecstatically. He pulled back for a moment, gazing into her eyes.

"Do you need me to be gentle?" He asked, sensing that for a girl like her, it was her first time.

She bit her lip shyly as though bracing herself and turned her head away, gripping the bed sheets with her hands. "Just do it." She whispered.

Dom chuckled at her expression and moved his hand from the small of her back to turn her face back to his and kiss her, allowing her to pull away and gasp when he entered her. Her hands moved from the sheets to his back at some point in the wild thrusting and moaning, as they moved their faces to each other's shoulders. Both of them moaned the other's name in climax before collapsing onto the bed.

The sane parts of both of them trembled at what they had just done. But it couldn't be taken back. As Ariadne caught her breath she couldn't help but feel the drowsiness of sleep take over, and she fell asleep with her back facing the man that she would soon share something with that she never thought could be shared. Dreams.

* * *

…**Well don't I feel like the Socially Awkward Penguin now, huh?**

**Good luck getting that out of your head. –Evil laughter-**

**Alright, please leave a review stating if it was Good, Terrible, at least better than my other fic, or just an honest opinion of this chapter.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's note: YAY! Long weekend! More time to write!**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Inception, we've been over this.

* * *

"**There is this square on the screensaver, and it bounces along the screen ALL DAY. Sometimes, it looks like it's going right into the corner of the screen, but then it bounces away at the last second. We are all just **_**dying**_** to see it go into the corner."**

**~ Jim Halpert, The Office ~**

The moment Ariadne's eyes opened and she was facing a large window she knew something was wrong. It was like the time she'd fallen asleep in the middle of her tenth grade math class and had woken up confused as to where the hell she was or why she was using a notebook as her pillow. Her dorm room did not have a window nearly the size of the wall, nor did her bed have white sheets. Rather everything was either dark brown or olive green. Only after lifting her head to squint at the light of dawn over Paris and slowly propping herself up did she realize she wasn't wearing anything.

Clutching the sheets to herself frantically, she glanced over and her eyes nearly turned into saucers. She only faintly remembered the man from the previous night and was certainly shocked to find him sleeping with his back facing her. _No, no this is not happening to me!_ She thought, her breathing starting to near hysterics. She could barely believe herself, sleeping with some stranger she met at a club. Quickly and quietly she slipped out of the bed to shakily put her clothes on, wincing with every creak the floor made. Did every little movement have to sound like a gunshot? Adjusting her thankfully intact clothes she glanced at the sleeping man, praying that he was still asleep. Thanking God that he was, she slipped out of the room and into the hallway, unable to believe anything that had happened within the past twenty four hours.

Dominic woke up when he heard the door close. He hoped it wasn't Arthur coming to snap at him for being 'unprofessional' and 'immature' about everything. His teammate was expecting him to be mature now of all times and in truth, Dom wanted to be. He had to do this job right or there might be absolutely no chance of ever seeing his kids' beautiful faces again.

But the door hadn't opened for someone to walk into the room, it had been an exit. Dom rolled onto his back for a moment contemplating what had happened. His blue eyes glanced over at the other side of the hotel bed where he knew Ariadne had been moments ago and couldn't quite understand what he felt when her presence had left the room. He felt sorry that he had taken her while she was drunk and unaware of what she was really doing, but at the same time he felt so… _disappointed_ that she had gone. Of all the things he'd ever questioned he was so bewildered that he could feel so infatuated with a stranger.

* * *

"How long do I have to put up with this shit, Cobb?" Arthur was ranting as they walked through the hotel lobby. "You weren't gone for very long and I heard two people coming back. _Two._"

Dom pressed his eyebrows together, wishing Arthur wouldn't talk about Ariadne. He already regretted taking advantage of the girl like that and he didn't want to think about it anymore.

"What did you do, find some French girl that looked like Mal and decided 'Huh. Good enough'?" Dom whirled around on the sidewalk, enraged. Just by the look on the point man's face, Dom knew that Arthur had wanted to take the words back.

Dom was past annoyed, now he was _irate_ at how his point man regarded everything like Dom could just say 'run along now' and Mal would leave his mind as well as Phillipa and James. Things were changing now and he was going to get back to his kids and never deal with this kind of criticism again. "Don't ever talk about _her_ again." He said in a low voice, his tone full of venom.

Arthur looked like he wanted nothing more than to argue, to get his point across about Dom being unreasonable. Dom didn't give him a chance to interrupt as he said "I'm going to the college, Miles can help me hire a new architect. Go to the warehouse and set up everything."

His teammate glared at him as he walked away. "Fine." Arthur growled.

* * *

Ariadne could barely keep her head up in class. They were meant to be working on notes for different European themes in buildings, but the dizziness in her head from the hangover distracted her as though critically thinking hurt.

"Ariadne, I don't know whether to be worried about you or disappointed." Ramone grumbled from the seat next to her, glaring at her through narrowed eyes.

"How many times do I have to apologize?" She hissed back, propping her head in her hand. "I-I don't know what I was thinking!"

Ramone shook his head angrily. "You should have _listened _when I told you I had a bad feeling about that club."

"I know… I know…" Ariadne sighed, closing her eyes in frustration. Then her eyes flickered back open as a defiant thought crossed her mind. Twisting in her seat, she stared a Ramone. "What did _you _do when I left with him?"

Her friend's shoulders sagged as he averted his eyes. "I'm sorry, Ariadne." He whispered "I just left… I was scared and I left."

Of course, Ramone was all bark and no bite. He couldn't defend someone no matter how hard he tried and was known to never act harshly to anyone for as long as Ariadne had known him. "I don't know if I should forgive you." She muttered, "I might just have to go remove you from my facebook friends."

Ramone feigned a gasp. "No, Ari, how _could_ you?" He pretended to cry "After everything we've been through?"

Ariadne rolled her eyes. "Never go into the acting business, they'll kill you."

"And _you_ need to consider a job in the modeling career, you're quite the head-turner." Ramone joked.

Ariadne playfully hit his shoulder. "Shut up."

* * *

"Can you tell me about this student that is better than I was?" Dom asked as he and Miles walked towards the stairs in the French college.

"She's very bright, and as stubborn as they come. Never fails any progress and achieves far more than we expect." Miles explained. Then his tone turned low and serious, "Do not let her go into the job with you, it would be a tragedy for a mind like hers to be lost."

"Don't worry, I don't intentionally lose my team."

"One more thing," Miles said "Don't doubt her at first sight, she has a strong mind capable of handling the stress of shared dreaming."

"Good, I need her to be. An architect is vital to the job."

Miles looked over at the stairs as a bell rang and students filed out of various rooms, soon scattering around the vast building. He seemed to pinpoint the student he was looking for as he called out "Ariadne?"

Dom's eyes widened. _Ariadne?_ He looked up to see the girl from the club walking towards them. She glanced over at him and the moment their eyes locked, she looked like she'd seen a dog grow wings and fly. _Oh my god._

**Author's note: My apologies about this being short. I'm sure the next chapter is longer.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: I had a reeeeally weird dream that I was watching Inception and Dom and Ariadne just started kissing like mad. I was just like 'I don't remember **_**that**_** in the movie.' And then I woke up extremely confused.**

**UGH! I got a cold and I had to take Robitussin! Whoever invented cherry medicine sucks!**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Inception. How many times do I have to say it?

* * *

"**Your skin****  
****Oh yeah your skin and bones****  
****Turn into something beautiful****  
****D'you know for you I bleed myself dry****  
****For you I bleed myself dry****  
****Its true look how they shine for you****  
****look how they shine for you****  
****look how they shine for you****."**

**~ Coldplay's 'Yellow' Song ~**

Dom seemed to be polite enough, and good at acting as he never mentioned a thing about the night before. Ariadne was wary around him at first, but he was serious about this job and never strayed off topic. He made her draw mazes, three in a row. She was confused and almost irritated that he wouldn't tell her a thing about this 'job offer' and only led her along with mystery and curiosity.

"You create the world of the dream," He was saying at the Parisian café, "you bring the subject into that dream, and they fill it with their subconscious."

Bringing people into dreams? It wasn't possible. She didn't believe it. "And how could I ever acquire enough detail to make them think that it's reality?"

"Well dreams, they feel real while we're in them, right? It's only when we wake up that we realize something was actually strange." He leaned closer to her, drawing her in with his deep blue eyes. "Let me ask you a question; you never remember the beginning of a dream, do you? You always end up right in the middle of what's going on."

She thought back her dreams, averting her gaze for a moment. "Yeah, I guess."

"So how did we end up here?"

"Well we just came from the, uh… the…" She trailed off, trying to figure out what the hell was happening.

"Think about it, Ariadne how did you get _here_? Where are you right now?"

Ariadne's eyes widened in shock. "We're _dreaming?_"

"You're actually in the middle of the workshop right now, sleeping." He confirmed. "This is your first lesson in shared dreaming, stay calm."

The ground vibrated and shook under her feet as everything around them seemed to explode in slow motion, debris floating softly in the air, fruit crates exploded as the apples they contained did the same. Ariadne stared at everything, hardly believing what she was seeing. Dom didn't seem the least bit surprised. He was watching _her_ reaction rather than the explosions. And then the debris that had been floating almost lazily in the air dropped at terrifying speeds. Dom put his hand over his face, bracing himself.

"If it's just a dream, why are you- AH!" Her yell was turned into a shriek as pain shot out from the side of her body when glass shards sliced her skin.

Her eyes opened as she gasped for breath and clung to the lawn chair she had found herself in.

"Because it's never just a dream."

* * *

They were striding on the sidewalk again with Ariadne leading, or perhaps snooping because she tried to look at everything all at once, much to Dom's amusement. He was glad she didn't mention a thing about the night before, and he fought to keep his mind in the present every time she looked his way.

At one point in the stroll, she paused and stepped to the side to lean on a building, cradling her face in her hands. Dom stopped walking and blinked at her, not sure what she was doing.

"Are you okay?" he asked, inching towards her in concern.

"I-I just have… a phobia of dreams sometimes."

"Sometimes?" Dom inquired. From what he knew about phobias he understood some stuck to people like glue and others only acted up once in a while.

"Sometimes I'm afraid I'll never wake up." She explained shakily, sliding off of the bricks to sit on the sidewalk.

Dom knelt beside her, cautiously touching his hand to her shoulder. "Listen, PASIV dreaming is different. I can assure you that you will wake up." He gave her a moment to breathe, letting his hand drop back to his side. "Do you want to continue with the lesson?" He asked when she seemed to look less tense.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm okay."

* * *

_"Building a dream from your memory is the easiest way to lose your grasp on what's real and what is a dream!"_

_ "Is that what happened to you?"_

_ "__**Hey**__, listen to me! This has nothing to do with me, do you understand?"_

_ "Is that why you need me to build your dreams?"_

_ "Get off of her, back off, __**get off of her!**__"_

_ "Cobb! Cobb, wake me up!"_

_ "MAL, NO!"_

_ "WAKE ME UP!"_

Ariadne knew she would never forget that as she fled the warehouse, holding her cellphone in her shaking hand. The feeling of the cold knife penetrating her skin would forever haunt her as well as the harsh crowd pulling her away from Dom. She'd never felt more panicked or scared in her life at the face of imminent danger. She had honestly thought that she was going to die, with her only savior separated by the angry crowd.

Dialing furiously, she pressed her cold phone to her ear. "Ramone, I need you to come pick me up, I'm at Clover road." She instructed, thanking him and hanging up when her friend agreed to come help her. She stood near the road sign, constantly looking behind her to make sure no one was coming out of the warehouse to follow her.

She didn't have to wait long for Ramone's blue truck to come around the corner, tires sliding over the cobblestone. As soon as it slowed down, she jumped into the passenger seat and buckled herself in.

"Thanks." She said, noticing the scab on his hand that he looked like he'd been picking at again.

"What happened? This is nowhere near your apartment." He pointed out, his red hair falling over his face.

"Just get me out of here." Ariadne begged him quietly. "Please."

Ramone obliged quietly, turning the truck around and driving smoothly back to the apartment near the college.

Ariadne leaned against the window, haunted at how much the scenery resembled the dream that Dominic had taken her into. Over the course of twenty-four hours, that man had taken a hold of her mind. This overwhelming urge to find out what he was hiding, why that woman had invaded the shared dream, and why he'd acted so defensive around her made her think about going back. She never left anything unfinished, never quit. It wasn't in her nature.

"Something is wrong with you lately, Ariadne, I know it's not just your sister getting married." Ramone said, not taking his eyes off of the road.

"PMS?" She offered, her tone letting on that she didn't want to talk about it.

"Ari." He pleaded, growing frustrated.

"Look, I'm a senior in college, and I haven't done anything impulsive, taken any risks or gone with the flow my entire life. And today, I got a job offer that could really help me with that… but I just can't do it." It wasn't a lie. Dom wasn't the only thing on her mind, she'd been having problems far before the night at the bar.

"Last night was impulsive of you."

"That was different. That was the effects of alcohol." She pointed out.

"So why can't you take this job offer?"

That was the time to come up with a lie, Ariadne was sure Ramone would have a heart attack if he knew about Dom. "It involves moving back to the United States… and I'm not sure I want to do that yet, I've been thinking about exploring Europe and everything." She lied, improvising.

"You said you need to be impulsive, Ari. And that 'exploring Europe' thing sounds like you're planning things."

She raised one dark eyebrow. "And?"

"I think you should take this job offer."

She narrowed her eyes. _You wouldn't say that if you knew the whole story._ She thought.

* * *

She walked numbly back into the warehouse, remembering how she felt when she woke up that morning from her nightmare of a hallway on fire. The flames had licked the air next to her, surrounding her with smoke and sparks. Her family stood at one end of the hall and Dominic Cobb stood at the other. Both sides called out to her, and she couldn't move her feet. She squirmed on her stone-weight feet, unable to run to either of them. Just before she woke up, it had been Dom that ran towards her with his hand outstretched to save her.

Her footsteps echoed off of the concrete in the workshop as she entered the room filled with gray desks and columns matching the walls. Dom didn't seem to be in the building, his dark-haired coworker –Arthur, she believes- was there instead.

"Cobb said you'd be back."

"I tried not to come." _But I can't shake him out of my mind. _She added silently.

**Author's note: Why does it have to be so goddang cold in Michigan? Really, this whole 'getting a cold every other week' thing is so stupid.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: 'Ello everyone.**

**Disclaimer: **Yeah, yeah, I don't own Inception.

* * *

"**I-I mean airplanes are like, HUGE what's stopping them from falling out of the sky?"**

"**Um… **_**I**_** will?"**

**~ Mia and Casey, Better With You ~**

"I think Eames seems to have fallen in love with your plane, Saito." Cobb said as the british forger glanced quickly back at the plane they had just left.

"Shut up, I just… really want a private jet." Eames complained, looking up at the cloudy sky.

"Yes, you and everyone else, get a grip." Yusuf grumbled, shifting his hold on the dark leather briefcase filled with chemicals.

"So how's Nash?"

"Nash sold them out on a previous task, Cobol Engineering dealt with him." Saito explained smoothly as the four of them dragged their luggage into a black minivan with the logo of Saito's Corporation stuck to the back window.

"Figured," Eames grunted as they got into the car, "I only met the slimy bastard once, not very trustworthy. Who's taking his place, assuming you still aren't building, Cobb?"

"She's one of Miles's students."

"She?" The forger questioned, raising his eyebrows.

"Keep your hands to yourself Eames, I promised Miles to keep her safe." Dom growled, furious at the thought of Eames putting any moves on Ariadne.

"Too late." Yusuf joked from the passenger seat, "He's probably scheming on how to seduce the poor girl."

"One more word and I'll kick your ass through the windshield." Eames threatened the chemist.

* * *

Ariadne's nightmare felt more vivid than it ever had, and it was the same one every night with her family at one end of the burning hallway and Dom at the other. Dom always grabbed her hand and saved her, and just when she thought everyone was safe, her family disappeared out of thin air. Her projection of Dom in her dream always held her back, not allowing for her to run back through the flames to look for them, until all she could do was give up and let him take her away.

She woke up gasping, clinging to the navy blue sheets on her small bed. As she rolled over to look longingly at the alarm clock on her nightstand, she couldn't help but just want it to be morning to have an excuse to get up and forget about the nightmares of fire. Nope, it was only four AM. Groaning, she got up and grabbed her 'I love Minnesota' hoodie out of her closet, slipping it on over her tank top and pulling out her ponytail to let her dark hair fall over her shoulders.

Unafraid of the darkness of her apartment from the lack of windows, she slid through the living room and kitchen, finally closing the oak-wood door behind her and heading down the stairs to the park.

Not many people were awake at four AM, let alone at the park she found herself in across the street from her apartment. Light green grass blades folded beneath her bare feet as she strode steadily towards the olive green branch next to the willow tree. It always reminded her of the tree she used to play in as a little girl, sitting on thick branches with her legs swinging around lazily. Her and her siblings Anthea and Demitri had carved their names into the trunk of the tree, claiming they were going to make it a fort and throw stones at 'evil creatures' from behind the green curtains.

But this tree in Paris wouldn't have the names scrawled into the trunk, nor the paint stain where Demitri's friend Tyler had tried to shoot him with a paintball gun.

And the tree at home had been too close to the house to survive the fire.

_"Ariadne, you won't tell mom and dad will you?" The wide-eyed thirteen year old begged in the passenger seat of the old car._

_ "Depends, Anthea, would you tell them if I snuck out and made you pick me up at five in the morning?" Ariadne questioned without taking her eyes off of the road, typically paranoid of driving at sixteen._

_ "All I was doing was visiting Miranda, mom and dad won't let me talk to her ever since her mom went to rehab."_

_ Ariadne's eyebrows furrowed as she thought. Their parents were highly prejudiced, believed Anthea's friend Miranda to come from bad blood because of her mother being an alcoholic._

_ "I won't tell them." Ariadne decided. Anthea immediately relaxed into her seat, closing her green eyes and sighing._

_ "Thank you." The younger girl whispered in relief._

_ "How did you climb out, I thought you were scared of heights?" Ariadne knew the window was the only way to get out of the rooms on the second story of their light blue house were the windows if you didn't want to wake up the house from the damn bells attached to the front door._

_ "When you sneak out, the only thing you fear is getting caught." Anthea pointed out._

_ Ariadne leaned forwards as she turned onto their road. Something was wrong, she could feel it. She always had the intuition to foresee danger._

_ Then she saw the smoke just as Anthea saw the fire trucks parked in the driveway._

_ "No…" Ariadne slammed on the brakes, not bothering to take her keys out of the car or even put it in park as she yanked open the car door and bolted for the house, screaming for her parents and Demitri. A firefighter caught her before she ran into the roaring flames, trying to calm her down from her hysteria. Another man ran forward to help as she nearly broke free. Anthea was curled up on the grass, hiding her face and shaking in terror._

_ "NO! THEY AREN'T DEAD! NO!"_

"You know, the beauty of Paris can take away our worries sometimes."

Ariadne looked up, blinking back tears from the memory that had formed nine years before. Cobb stood next to the bench, staring at the city with observing eyes. She hadn't seen him since the start of her training and it was almost shocking to see him again after her vivid dreams of him saving her from the burning hallway.

"What're you doing here? You know… in the park at four AM?" Ariadne questioned him.

"Funny, I could ask you the same thing." He said, sitting next to her. "But since you asked first… I'm here because sleep just isn't coming to me tonight."

"You're lucky… I wish that I couldn't sleep."

"Why?"

She bit her lip. "I have… been having nightmares lately." She finally admitted after turning the thought over in her mind.

"About what?" She closed her eyes at the sudden vision of flames and shook her head, unable to bring to words just what her nightmares consisted of. "Listen," He said, touching her hand to bring her attention back to him. "After a while with dream sharing, you can't dream normally anymore."

She opened her eyes. "You can't?"

"No." he confirmed "But before that happens, people have the most vivid nightmares, things you regret, things you fear."

"That explains a lot…" She said, fighting a blush when she realized his hand was still on hers.

"So what do _you_ regret?" He asked curiously, his piercing blue gaze flickering across her face.

"It's irrelevant, trust me." She murmured, looking at the ground.

"That doesn't mean I can't care."

"I just can't talk about it." She protested stubbornly.

"Then I can't help you, Ari." He replied softly.

She stood up with a sigh, reluctant to feel the connection between their hands break. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Dom looked down at his hands as she walked away with a sigh. Nothing that she regretted could be as bad as what he had done.

**Author's Note: ... Why can't I make these chapters as long as I want them to be?.. Gr.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: ERGH. I have been watching sooo many sad movies! The Last Song… Titanic… Dear John… I need a comedy movie…**

**Disclaimer: **Inception isn't mine. It's Christopher Nolan's.

"**When I see your smile****  
****Tears run down my face****  
****I can't replace****  
****And now that I'm stronger I've figured out****  
****How this world turns cold****  
****And breaks through my soul****  
****And I know, I'll find deep inside me****  
****I can be the one****  
****I will never let you fall****  
****I'll stand up with you forever****  
****I'll be there for you through it all****  
****Even if saving you sends me to Heaven."**

**~ The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus 'Your Guardian Angel' Song. ~**

Ariadne hadn't slept that night, she'd only kept herself awake on coffee from her apartment, cursing Starbucks for not being open at those hours. Makeup could mask the dark circles under her eyes, making her look normal for the first day on the job with both of her teachers. She'd asked Arthur where Cobb was in the first place, he'd said Cobb was out getting more teammates. It made her wonder just how many people they needed to put an idea in someone's head.

Her footsteps echoed through the cement warehouse as she made her way up the stairwell and into the team's working space. Upon entering the room, Dom looked up from a gray desk. Remembering how his piercing blue eyes had looked at her in the park at night sent chills down her spine.

"Morning, Ari." He greeted her, flashing a small smile for a moment.

"So this is the new architect." A voice brought Ariadne's attention away from Dom and towards two men sitting on lawn chairs, neither had she seen before. The british one who had spoken stood up and strode over to her.

"I'm Brad Eames." He introduced himself, holding his hand out.

"Ariadne Kingson." She shook his hand quickly, uncertain of the way his eyes raked over her.

"Run while you can, Ariadne." Arthur spoke from standing next to the PASIV machine. "You don't want him stalking you."

"I'm Yusuf." The other man on the lawn chairs said, waving his hand in a 'hi' motion. "And I will not stalk you."

She waved back with a quick smile, taking a moment to hang up her red jacket. Dom looked up when she turned around, reconnecting his gaze with hers. "I'm assuming Arthur had you get started on the layout." He said expectantly, taking on a 'strictly professional mood'.

She nodded. "Yeah, I finished the first level."

"Good. You'll need to teach it to us later."

* * *

He didn't understand the irritation he felt whenever he noticed Eames's eyes steal glances at Ariadne. He told himself he didn't have a reason to feel protective over her since he himself had wounded her innocence, but he just couldn't help it.

He watched the towers rise around them in Ariadne's city for the first level. The team wandered around the intersection, getting the feel of everything, and he noticed Ariadne going off down the road. He glanced over at the others who were still marveling at the young architect's work before he followed her.

She didn't go very far, only a few turns away from the intersection where she was certain no one would be looking. In the spot where a building should have risen, ash and rubble coated the ground. He watched her sink to her knees, feeling the soot with her hands from the safety of a shop awning.

"I'm so sorry…" He heard her whisper, almost too quietly for him to hear. He walked towards her slowly, not wanting to startle her when she squeezed her pale eyelids shut to hold back tears.

"Something you regret?" Dom asked softly, kneeling beside her.

Her eyelids flew open at the intrusion and bright green grass quickly replaced the rubble. "It's nothing." She murmured, getting to her feet quickly.

He stood up next to her and grabbed her arm to stop her from walking away from him. "Clearly it's effecting your building skills." He pointed out, gesturing at the grass with his free hand.

"Please let me talk to you about it later." She begged, glancing around wildly as though an excuse would pop out of nowhere and save her.

"The team might interrupt soon. You're telling me _now_ Ariadne." He demanded.

She took a deep breath, every part of her screaming to hesitate. "That was my family's house I grew up in… it burnt down one day when I was picking up my little sister from a sleepover. My brother was… a smoker, and when he was secretly lighting a cigarette in the basement… he lit the house on fire." She explained everything without looking him in the eyes, not wanting to see his reaction. She'd never told anyone that much, and it wasn't the whole story even.

He watched her with careful eyes, not letting go of her arm. He knew there was something Ariadne wasn't telling him, but he didn't pry. He knew what it was like to lose someone, how _haunting_ it could be. "I'm sorry, it's not easy losing people you love." He said, using his free hand to brush a few strands of hair out of her face.

"I know. Arthur told me about Mal…"

He dropped her arm like it had turned into a snake at the mention of Mal. _Damn it, Arthur. Damn, damn, damn! _he thought angrily. He didn't want the whole team to know about Mal. It was part of the reason he was so drawn to Ariadne. She didn't look at him with pity or sorrow in her pretty brown eyes, she'd looked at him like an equal in being introverted and intellectual, different than the others. "We should be waking up soon." He said quietly.

Ariadne frowned. Why did he shy away at the mention of Mal after he pried into her head to find out about her family? She wanted to scream at the unfairness of it all. She had confronted Demitri about smoking, and just like Anthea had begged her not to tell her parents about her friend, Demitri had gotten on his knees and cried to her about not telling them. She always believed it was her fault. She was never cut out to be the strong and responsible older sister, she just let them use her as a pushover to get what they wanted. It was empathy and the ability to keep a secret that always made her a target to these things, and it was maddening.

Dom's reaction alone proved that she wasn't the only one with something to hide.

**Author's Note: Uh... hehe *gets slapped* Okay, okay! It was a short chapter! Please don't kill me...**


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: I have more proof of Dom and Ariadne being an intended couple!**

**Okay, like I have said before, I have seen the original script and Arthur's kiss trick is missing, and there are several hints of DomxAri romance. Despite the fact that she said she was doing this for the team, Dom constantly stuck around her and protected her in the inception job and in the Limbo scene, when Mal stabbed Dom, in the script Ariadne screamed 'NO!' before she shot Mal. Would she have that reaction if she didn't care about him? Look up the script, people. Seriously.**

**Disclaimer: **Could someone explain why I have to say this every chapter? Inception is not mine! It's Christopher Nolan's!

* * *

"**Okay Monique, does he have your number? One eight hundred Bee-och?"**

**~Viola Hastings, 'She's the Man'~**

Ariadne never felt awkward arriving to the workshop before anyone else. She just checked around the corners to make sure no one was there like Dom had been the previous night. The night she completed her totem, and the night that he told her that everyone thought he killed Mal.

It made her wonder if he did kill her, he didn't seem like a murderer. Hell, she had intuition like no other and she'd gone with him from a club. Even drunk, she knew who to stay away from and who wouldn't hurt her. There was so much he was hiding from her, it drove her crazy. She'd told him the full-out truth, and he played with her head. It was one damn dangerous game they were playing, that was for sure.

She lounged in one of the lawn chairs, pulling her iPod out of the pocket in her red jacket and scrolling through her songs. Unable to rest her mind on one, she hit shuffle and leaned back to tap her feet to "Island in the Sun" by Weezer. She readjusted her dark scarf with one hand and closed her eyes in content as the morning light warmed the cold cement building.

"Weezer?" A voice questioned from the doorway behind her. She nearly jumped out of her skin before she whirled around to face Dom.

"Are you going to make a habit of scaring the hell out of me?" She questioned, pulling her headphones out of her ears and returning the iPod to her pocket.

He put up his hands as though surrendering. "I'm sorry, I needed to announce I was here somehow, I'll try to avoid that reaction."

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, forgiven." She huffed.

"Did you have anymore nightmares?" He asked curiously.

_You hypocrite…_ she thought silently. Why did he have to be more stubborn than she was? It made her feel like she had given in to him too easily, almost like it was mocking. Though truthfully, she accepted the challenge. If he wouldn't quit prying, neither would she.

"Well, just one nightmare, really." She said.

"What are your nightmares about?"

"Well, someone is being nosy today." She pointed out, raising her eyebrows.

"Just curious." He said innocently, taking on the inquisitive look similar to the expression that she had tried to use when questioning him.

"Fire. In general, my nightmares are about fire." Ariadne explained, glancing away and fighting to hide the blush when she thought about how he always took her away from the flames of her past. There was no way he was getting _that_ information out of her.

"It's completely natural to fear fire after what happened to you." He said gently.

"That's not what I fear."

He pushed himself off of the wall he had been leaning on. He felt like there was something she had told him, and that he wasn't putting two and two together. "What then?"

"'Ello, comrades." Eames interrupted, striding in with Arthur following.

"Ready for another 'annoying Eames' day?" The point man grumbled as he passed Ariadne and Dom.

"How do you know that he's going to be annoying?" Ariadne asked.

"The stupider the greeting the more annoying he'll act." Dom explained.

* * *

Ariadne stared between the crossed bars of the cage-like elevator, unable to make sense of this. _Tests? What the hell is this?_ she listened as she started to hear murmuring over the creaks of the lift. The 'floor' the elevator had stopped at looked like a house full of dark wood walls and large windows that filtered in the light with rolling green hills in the distance. Dom was sitting at a window seat with Mal next to him, caught up in caresses and whispers. Ariadne would've felt like an intruder if seeing Mal didn't send a paralyzing jolt of fear through her. All she could picture was Dom screaming at the crowd on the bridge to let her go as the sinister French woman pointed a cruel knife in her direction.

And then Mal saw her. It was all she could do to not shake like a leaf when Dom followed the woman's gaze and caught her in his sight.

_Damn it, Ariadne._ He thought, storming away from Mal and towards Ariadne. He was furious, both at himself and her. They both stayed late at the warehouse, she constantly checked up on him before she left and he was always lucky enough to wake up before she got to him. Luck seemed to be escaping him tonight though, because the girl had been gutsy enough to intrude. After he'd worked so hard to make sure no one found out about this _prison _of memories.

"You shouldn't be here." He growled, stepping into the elevator next to her and closing the gate, isolating the two of them from Mal. He pressed the top button on the floor numbers, willing the lift to get them away.

She shrank away from him, wary of his irritated behavior. "I just wanted to see what kind of _tests _you were doing every night." She retorted, letting her hair fall over her face as a meek shield.

"Well, this has nothing to do with you."

"This has everything to do with me! You've asked me to share dreams with you!"

"Not these." He growled. "These are my dreams."

"You made me tell you about my family!" She wailed, unable to believe how hypocritical he was being.

"I know." He muttered. He knew he was one to talk when he had been persistent to find out about her secret, but his subconscious was far more dangerous than hers, and keeping her away would be far safer. Now that she had seemingly attached herself to his problems, she was endangering herself. How the hell was he supposed to protect her from his own mind?

Ariadne watched him peer at the beach from the shadows of the elevator sadly. Why was he putting himself through so much pain? It confused her so much, to the point that she had to ask more questions. She never climbed out of a hole without discovering something, she only dug herself in deeper.

"Why do you do this to yourself?" She asked softly.

"It's the only way I can still dream."

She thought back to her fear of dreams, the fear of not waking up. "Why is it so important to dream?"

"In my dreams we're still together." He explained quietly, stepping back into the elevator and closing the gate again. He pressed the button to go to a lower floor, to a memory that didn't contain a projection of Mal.

"These aren't just dreams…" Ariadne murmured "These are memories! You said never to use memories!"

"I know I did."

"You're trying to keep her alive… you can't let her go…"

He shook his head. "You don't understand. These are moments I regret, moments I _have_ to change."

Her eyes darted to the button that could take them to the basement. "Well, what's down there that you regret?" She asked, reaching out to it.

He leaned over quickly and snatched her wrist with one hand gently. "Listen, there's only one thing you need to understand about me." He said, his face dangerously close to hers.

* * *

Things couldn't have felt more chilling in the elevator before they woke up on the lawn chairs. He clearly realized he'd need to work on his guarding skills, seeing as she'd escaped his sight for a long enough moment to get into the basement. The seconds it had taken the lift to take him to the hotel room seemed to drag on, fear had shot through him whenever he thought of Mal hurting Ariadne. He had to get her out of there. He had barely been paying attention to what Mal was saying when he finally arrived at the basement, he was merely watching to see what she was doing with the shard of broken glass while he had inched towards Ariadne.

The second Mal had lurched towards them with the fractured weapon, he had grabbed Ariadne as quickly as he could and hauled her back into the lift with him. He fought to keep the gates closed against his own irate projection when Ariadne hid against the wall, as though trying to shrink away from him even when the lift pulled them to another floor and he had moved closer to her as though in a protective position.

Ariadne confronted him as soon as they woke up in the warehouse, her eyes dark and accusing. "Do you think you can just build a prison of memories to lock her in? Do you really think that's going to contain her?" She questioned him.

Before he could answer her Arthur and Saito entered the room quickly, flipping on the light switches.

"It's time, Maurice Fischer just died in Sydney."

Ariadne didn't listen to the exchange between them, she never took her eyes off of Cobb's face. She had to do something, she couldn't let him put himself through hell with that 'elevator of regrets' or his projection of Mal. The second the idea popped into her mind, she was bound and determined to follow her instincts. As soon as Cobb started to pack up the PASIV machine, she voiced her idea aloud.

"I'm going with you."

Dom looked her in the eyes and shook his head disapprovingly. "I promised Miles-"

"I don't care. You tried to help me, now I'm helping you. And the team needs someone who knows what you're dealing with." She held his gaze with equal stubbornness and ferocity, until he had to give in. At least, that's what she assumed.

It wasn't giving in, it was some sudden force that growled at her challenging his attempts to keep her safe. If she was so eager to jump into his mind, fine. She obviously didn't get that once she got involved with something as precious as a mind, there was no going back.

"Get us another seat on the plane." He ordered Saito, closing the PASIV. Ariadne breathed a sigh of relief, glad that she would be able to help him. No one deserved that kind of mental torture, nobody. Dom turned to her just as he was about to leave the workspace. "Just so you know," he whispered so only she could hear him, "you haven't seen the worst of it."

**Author's Note: SNOW DAY! WOOOOO!**

**By the way… did anyone hear about Tom Hardy being in the new Batman movie? According to my brother he's playing Bane, so I must know if this is true!**


End file.
